From Reality to AI Hell: Inside the Making of a Hybrid Vision
The selected music video “GYM SYMPHONY” is the result of an unusually large and deeply collaborative creative network — filmmakers, musicians, AI artists, VFX designers, and friends coming together to build a layered audiovisual world. Director Jakob Ladányi Jancsó leads the project, supported by a team whose roles blurred and intertwined as the film grew organically through human craft and machine-generated imagery.
The music is originally written for full symphony orchestra and premiered live in May 2025 at the Liszt Academy with the Danubia Orchestra, the score evolved into a multilayered, experimental sound world. Monumental symphonic passages collide with raw electronics, distorted textures, and sound fragments from politics, pop culture, classical tradition, and everyday life. Even the narrator’s voice is AI-generated, turning the soundscape into a metaphor for overload, self-exploitation, and contemporary body culture.
Check our interview with director Jakob Ladányi Jancsó below.
A Sixty-Person Creative Ecosystem
When asked who shaped the video, the team highlights both the scale and intimacy behind the production.
“The film was created by a close-knit group of around sixty collaborators, filmmakers, musicians and friends who came together to bring this project to life. It was directed by Jakob Ladányi Jancsó, with music and production by Petra Szászi, and produced by Beyond Production with Péter Rádi. The visual world was shaped by Dániel Bálint as director of photography, while its AI-driven aesthetic was developed through the collaboration of Panka Óvári, Bercel Hegyessy and Máté Barbalics, whose work defined much of the film’s identity. The editor was László-Csongor Csurka.”
Despite its scale, the production remained personal — a collaborative ecosystem where every contributor left a fingerprint.
Two Days of Shooting, Six Months of Evolving Footage
The timeline behind the piece reveals a process where the film was constantly rewriting itself.
“We had two shooting days, and then the editing process took about six months. The editing process was so long because we constantly rethought the edit as new AI-generated footage emerged while the music was being simultaneously composed.”
In other words: the film wasn’t just cut — it evolved.
When AI Meets Live-Action: A Beautiful, Chaotic Challenge
Blending AI imagery with real-world footage is still uncharted territory for most filmmakers. The team reflects on the immense complexity of that workflow.
“Blending AI-generated footage with traditionally shot material was definitely a challenge. During editing, we were simultaneously generating AI footage while the composer was composing the music. Graphic designers, VFX artists, and AI artists were working together to create footage that could blend well and seamlessly with the footage we shot. This organic development of the video created an exciting and fruitful collaborative process, but it also ended up being lengthy and difficult to manage.”
The difficulty was also the magic: artists from multiple disciplines working in parallel, influencing each other in real time.
The Descent: Their Favorite Moment in the Film
The structure of the video is intentionally segmented yet narratively fluid, moving from reality into a surreal AI underworld.
“The video has four separate parts, but they are closely connected and form one continuous journey from reality into a fully AI-created hell. Our favorite part is when the real world is still visible, but it slowly starts to mix with the Dante-inspired AI elements before turning into a Bosch-like inferno.”
It’s the in-between moments — the threshold — that define the emotional core.
A Dante-Inspired Warning About Modern Life
At its heart, the piece carries a message rooted in literary tradition but applied to the modern world.
“The video is inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy. We wanted to draw a parallel between Dante’s journey to hell and our capitalistic hustle culture that exploits people to an extent which can be seen as part of our damnation.”
The descent into hell becomes an allegory for the pressures and illusions of contemporary grind culture — a modern inferno built not of demons, but deadlines.
Check the 18+ video below or here
CREDITS
Director: Jakob Ladanyi Jancso / @jak_lad
Music: Petra Szászi / @p.schaffler
Production Company: Beyond / @byndproduction
Producers: Petra Szászi, Péter Rádi / @peterradi_
Executive Producer: Judit Romwalter @sparkshungary
Director of Photography: Dániel Bálint / @dbalinto
Assistant Director: Donát Seres / @donifraiche
2nd AD: Sára Kisházy
Production Manager: Zsófi Mánya @zsotzi
Focus Puller: János Darmos
1st AC: János Darmos, Armand Puszta
2nd AC: László Szabó
Key PA: Tímea Czakó @czakotimi
Stat Coordinator: Fanni Szegedi
Production Designers: Panna Óvári, Bercel Hegyessy / @pankaovari / @bercelhegyessy
Art Assistants: Luca, Kata Óvári
Gaffer: Botond Holndonner, Andor Valentiny
Grip & Electric Staff: Máté Előd, Gergely Povázsay, Bálint Taricska, Mátyás Lakatos, Zsombor Szász, Ágoston Mohácsi
Editor: László-Csongor Csurka / @csurkalaci
AI Producer: Máté Barbalics / @mate__barbalics
AI Artist: CodePunk / @codepunk_ai
Mark Sas, Panka Óvári, Áron Bajnok, Ádám Lendvai
VFX Composition: Bercel Hegyessy, Shahah Hosseini, Bence Major-Sasvári
On-Set AI: Márk Sas, Áron Filkey, Emil Goodman, Máté Brauner
Camera Trainee: Zóra Elek
HMU Artist: Szilvia Szabó
Costume Designer: @lindaapava
Costume Assistant: Aliz Liszkay
VFX Stills: Géza Soós / @soos.geza
BTS Photo: Lídia Paseczki
Casting: Hermina Fátyol, Bálint Dezső, Petra Szászi, Sára Kisházy
Choreographer: Domokos Kovács / @kovacsdomokos
Set Dressers: Luca Susla, Kata Óvári, Lilla Bukovacz, Sára Bacsfalvi
Wardrobe Assistant: Aliz Liszkay
Makeup: Szilvia Szabó
Driver: Endre Ferenc Szászi
Catering: Regina Fábián, Anna Horváth, Anna Kistamás, Katalin Fehérváry
Special thanks to: Power Gym and Fitness, Er-Si Moon Kft., Nebo Dojo, Umbrella, Zoom Casting
